


You're So Dog-Gone Cute

by orphan_account



Category: Jrock, ペンタゴン | Pentagon
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-08-24 14:49:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8376259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Atsuki is a punk college kid who spends his free time and also not-so-free time volunteering at an animal shelter near his campus. Minpha is the cute boy who doesn't care about traditional gender roles that comes to visit the cats everyday, conveniently during Atsuki's shifts.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i had a dream that atsuki worked in an animal shelter and minpha came to play with the cats because he couldn’t get one, and then i told ali about it and things got out of control. this is my second au where bfs meet at an animal shelter, why am i like this? ty to mel for telling me atsuki’s dogs names!!

“You like them, don’t you, Squidward?”

Atsuki groans, not for the first time that day. “You’re too annoying to be Spongebob.”

“Too annoying? Annoying is his main character trait!” Yutori says, much too loudly for the corridor outside of the kittens’ room where Atsuki had been sweeping for the past fifteen minutes, in the same spot. Ever since the cute pink-haired person wearing a skirt had shown up to visit the cats.

“Yes, but you’re _more_ annoying.” Yutori looked a bit hurt by the comment. Instead of gracing Atsuki with a response, he marched into the kitten holding room.

“Yuto- What are you doing? Yutori!” Atsuki hissed under his breath, trying to grab the back of Yutori’s work shirt but missing him by mere centimeters. He walks right up to the person Atsuki definitely hadn’t been watching for the last quarter of an hour. Atsuki, once again, found himself groaning and praying to any deity that would listen to him that Yutori wouldn’t say something too painfully stupid.

Judging by the perplexed look they gave Yutori, he had definitely said something incredibly stupid. Atsuki was simply thankful they hadn’t glanced back at him. He looks away before he gets caught staring (which he definitely isn’t doing).

A few short minutes later, Yutori was coming back out of the room.

“What did you do?” Yutori looked affronted at Atsuki’s accusatory tone.

“ _Nothing_ ,” Yutori said, overly loud as always, and marched past Atsuki into the storage room behind reception where they keep treats and other animal paraphernalia. “I asked him if he wanted treats for the kittens.”

“Did you ask pronouns, too, or are you just assuming?” Atsuki asked, following and keeping his voice low in the vain hope that Yutori would catch on and stop talking so loudly.

“He didn’t look offended when I called him ‘sir’ so I think it’s fine,” Yutori replied, reaching for the treats on the top shelf and coming up short. Atsuki barked a laugh before pulling them down for him and following Yutori back out of the room.

“You know, you’re a bit obvious following me around like a puppy _right_ after I talked to him.” Atsuki paled. “Just kidding. I doubt he’d notice; he’s a bit preoccupied,” Yutori allayed, indicating the boy they could see through the open door and glass walls of the kittens’ enclosure, where said kittens were chasing each other across his legs.

“Why are we friends?” Atsuki asked, not for the first time that day.

“Because you love me,” Yutori replied without missing a beat, walking backwards into the room to make kissy faces at him. Atsuki didn't tell him he was nearly to the glass door and took distinct pleasure in watching Yutori turn around just in time to mash his face into it.

-

Today, the cute, pink-haired boy wore a knee length, black pleated skirt and a patterned crop top. Not once has Atsuki seen him wear pants, and several times he’s heard him gently correct employees on his pronouns. 

Atsuki admired him for it. He’d never quite had the guts to wear a skirt or dress himself, and the rejection of traditional gender roles is definitely punk. He also appreciated the boy’s quiet insistence and intolerance for disrespect. For the most part, however, it was because of a crush Yutori swore Atsuki harbored, no matter how much he denied it.

According to Yuui, the manager of the shelter, for the last two weeks the pink haired boy (whose name was currently a mystery) had shown up everyday to visit with the cats. He usually arrived towards the end of morning shift, staying until around an hour into evening shift. Yuui gave Atsuki a very pointed look when he informed him that the boy’s visits happened to coincide with Atsuki’s shifts for the past week.

Atsuki, logically, had argued that Yutori also worked all the same shifts as him. So did Taku, for that matter, except on Friday where Taku worked the morning shift since he didn’t have classes and usually had gigs with his band in the evening. Atsuki and Yutori worked the evening shift because they shared a morning painting class.

Just as Atsuki had decided he had definitely been coming in for Taku this entire time, the pink-haired boy walked in around an hour and a half into his shift. Of course, he had been reasoning with himself, Taku had been a secondary reason; the primary reason, as far as all of them could tell, was to play with the cats. 

Yutori had asked the boy on the first day he’d come in--or so he claimed--if he would like to adopt one of the cats. He had answered sincerely, but without elaborating, that he would have loved to, but could not. He had then asked if it would be alright for him to come in often and visit them. Yutori told him that was perfectly okay, and that the cats would indubitably love the company and attention.

The shelter workers did their best to give the animals in their care all the love and attention they could, but sadly there were simply too many animals and not enough volunteers to love them. Atsuki and Yutori had tried valiantly through the years that they had been working here, but even the two of them weren’t enough to make all the animals happy. Even if they were, a lot of them grew depressed over continually being looked over by people looking to adopt, or being returned when people realized a shelter animal wasn’t for them.

If there were people willing to visit and keep the animals company often, it was strongly encouraged. The visitors didn’t have the same responsibility as the employees to check on all the other animals or handle organizational duties like answering phones. They also didn’t have to clean litter boxes and living areas, or check inventory. A visitor could sit in the cat colony or a kennel all the day long and make an animal feel loved and cared for the way a volunteer simply didn’t have the time to.

Atsuki had just returned to reception from the back of the building after feeding the dogs for the evening. In a few hours, he would have to let them out to stretch their legs in the fenced part of the property one last time before clocking out and closing up with Yutori. Yuui needed to run out soon, on some family emergency, and he trusted Atsuki and Yutori enough that he didn’t have any qualms about leaving them on their own.

Atsuki stopped his mental walk through the rest of the day when he saw the stare Yutori was directing at him from behind the reception desk, chin in hand.

“...What?” Atsuki asked slowly, suspiciously. Yutori had a look of resolute determination in his eyes, and nine times out of ten, it led to situations that filled Atsuki with regret and misgivings about their friendship. There was only so much second and first hand embarrassment one person could stand.

“He’s here for you,” Yutori said, without context or preamble as if Atsuki should automatically know what he was talking about. Atsuki did, but that’s not the point. Admitting he knew would only strengthen Yutori’s conviction towards whatever stupid idea was brewing in his head, and that was the last thing Atsuki needed.

“Who?” Atsuki asked, walking behind the desk and going to knock on the door to Yuui’s office.

“Yuui’s already gone, and you know very well _who_. The only other person currently in this building. The guy that didn’t bat an eye while I was going around feeding the cats but raised his head when you were walking to the back to feed the dogs. Pink hair boy.”

“You don’t know that, Yutori,” Atsuki said, finally indulging him slightly by leaning on the desk next to him. He gave Yutori a bored look, as if what he was saying was preposterous and didn’t matter to Atsuki either way.

“Bullshit! I saw him looking at you.”

“Inside voice, dude.”

“As if anyone is here to be offended. Honestly, though, I don’t know why he chose to visit the cats if he’s after you; you look more like a dog type, and you’re in charge of them for the most part.”

“Maybe he doesn’t like loud noises. He’s pretty quiet, which would explain why he isn’t here for you,” Atsuki provided, then immediately regretted it when Yutori turned on him again.

“So you admit he’s here for you.”

“I did no such thing. I just said he wasn’t here for you because you’re inappropriately loud at the best of times. For all we know he’s genuinely just here for the cats. Or Yuui. Maybe he’s into old men.”

“Then he would have left by now.”

“Not if he just really likes cats.”

“Oh _please_ ,” Yutori snorted. Atsuki didn’t grace him with a reply.

-

Atsuki volunteered to sweep the corridors and cat colony out of the goodness of his heart. Yutori would beg to differ, but he stopped talking after Atsuki reminded him he would be stuck doing it otherwise.

“Y’know, you could just talk to him like a normal human being, ” Yutori suggested as he walked past Atsuki for the umpteenth time.

“Since that’s worked so well for you. Should I forget my words and stutter for a minute before asking him for a pencil, too?” Yutori looked properly chastised and red-faced, but neither of those things were enough to shut him up.

“I didn’t _know_ he was hot, it’s not my fault. And that’s not the point; I wanted to befriend him, not make out with him in the storage room,” Atsuki opened his mouth to argue, but Yutori plowed on, “Don’t try to tell me you don’t, you’ve been sweeping the same spot in this corridor for ten minutes. Outside of the room he’s in. Because you’re watching him through the open door.”

“That doesn’t mean I want to make out with him in the storage room.”

“Right, you’re just staring longingly after a guy you want to befriend because you think you’re not cool enough to hang with him,” Yutori mocked, rolling his eyes.

“Do you want to do the sweeping?”

“At this rate I’m going to have to anyway, I might as well mouth off to you.”

Atsuki groaned and pointedly continued sweeping, actually moving along instead of standing in place. Yutori snorted and walked ahead of Atsuki into the cat colony room.

For a blissful fifteen minutes, Atsuki swept in near silence while Yutori went about feeding the cats with the help of the pink haired boy. For once, Atsuki thought that Yutori may have given up on getting him to talk to the boy, at least for the day. Atsuki had never been more wrong.

“Just ask for his name already,” Yutori practically _shouted_ as he finished up feeding the cats. Atsuki contemplated whether going to jail for murder was worth it, especially with eye witness testimony.

“You’re too pretty for jail,” Yutori said, because apparently there was murder in Atsuki’s eyes. He diverted his gaze to the pink haired boy and saw him looking at Yutori with a mix of confusion and what might be horror. “Besides, my mother would pick a bad picture for my obituary.”

The pink haired boy, who was still behind the glass wall with the cats, looked at Atsuki briefly as Yutori left the room to go feed the dogs. Atsuki prayed to any god that would listen that the boy didn’t ask what Yutori was talking about.

Thankfully for Atsuki, the cat the boy had been petting bats him a few times with its paw to regain his attention. Atsuki scrambled out of the room as soon as they broke eye contact, swearing that if he didn’t kill Yutori, he’d at least seriously injure him.

-

Wednesdays were the worst, in Atsuki’s opinion. On Wednesdays, Atsuki had morning class and Yutori didn’t. This means he stopped to get coffee between campus and the shelter because he knew Yutori would be extra insufferable after having slept in, and Atsuki would rather be caffeinated if he had to be subjected to a bouncy, well-rested Yutori- especially when he usually got less than four hours of sleep himself.

It took Atsuki’s sleep addled brain a full five minutes of standing in line behind a familiar head of pink hair to realize who it belonged to.

“Oh! It’s the dude that comes to the shelter to see the cats all the time,” he said. Out loud. He began to will himself into an early grave. Why did his common sense have to shut down on Wednesdays?

Much to his chagrin, he did not go unheard. The boy in front of him turned his head to look over his shoulder. There was recognition in his eyes and Atsuki wasn’t sure if he should’ve been relieved or worried. For all he knew, this boy- this adorable boy, who wears navy cardigans over white lace dresses- thought of him as the weird punk kid at the animal shelter who stared at him from a distance.

“Minpha,” the boy said, so quietly that Atsuki could barely hear him over the din inside the cafe. Atsuki only realized the boy had just given him his name after he turned back around to step up to the counter and order his drink.

After paying, Minpha stepped to the side to wait for his drink. The line wasn’t overly busy, so it was ready by the time Atsuki has finished ordering an espresso macchiato. Minpha waited while Atsuki paid, and he hoped that meant Minpha was waiting for him.

“Atsuki,” Minpha acknowledged when Atsuki stepped over to wait for his drink. Atsuki felt proud of the fact that he managed not to look surprised in the time it took him to remember that of _course_ Minpha knew his name, since Atsuki wore a name tag at the shelter. The same name tag he was wearing currently, because he was on his way to the shelter.

“Minpha,” Atsuki replied in kind before his order was called and he took his drink. Minpha walked with him when he headed for the door. He wondered if Minpha had been on his way to the shelter before they ran into each other. Usually Minpha wouldn’t show up so early, but Atsuki tried not to let the hope that Minpha was coming with him because he wanted to talk to him get out of control.

“Why do you visit the shelter so often?” Atsuki asked conversationally, not one to squander an opportunity when it conveniently presented itself. It wouldn’t be weird for him to ask in this situation, with Minpha choosing to walk with him.

“I wanted to get a cat,” Minpha said, his voice even harder to hear over the sounds of main street traffic; Atsuki leaned in closer without thinking about it, and didn’t notice Minpha’s face become slightly more pink, “But I can’t. My mother is allergic.”

“You in high school?” Atsuki asked, suddenly panic stricken. Minpha looked young, but he couldn’t be in high school, could he? He came in during what would be high school hours on Mondays, and he couldn’t imagine he could get away with that every single Monday. Especially not to visit animals his mother was allergic to.

“Gap year,” Minpha said shortly, a pout on his full lips. He was wearing a clear lip gloss and Atsuki tried not to stare. “I have a job, but why pay for my own place when my parents still let me live at theirs? And I wouldn’t be able to afford a cat living on my own. I’d have to pick up a second job, and then I wouldn’t be able to spend any time with it.”

As Atsuki suspected, Minpha must just really like cats. He had obviously put a lot of thought into how he could get his own, and if he had a job, maybe he just came in when he wasn’t working. It had nothing to do with when Atsuki worked. He pretended he wasn’t disappointed.

“What about you?” Minpha asked, and Atsuki is caught off guard by the question.

“Me? Oh, I’m in school right now. Studying vet tech. I live with my best friend, but our parents pay for the place. I don’t have time for a job between school and volunteering here,” Atsuki said, sweeping his hand toward the door of the shelter a few yards ahead of them. “Neither does he. Our apartment is within the commuting distance for the school, and it’s cheaper than living in a dorm.” They reached the door and Atsuki held it open. “You coming?” Minpha nodded and thanked Atsuki quietly as he walked in through the open door.

Thankfully, Yutori hadn’t yet arrived. There was little doubt in Atsuki’s mind he would have wolf whistled if he saw Atsuki and Minpha walking through reception together towards the cat corridor. Taku was there, behind the desk, but he only raised an eyebrow and half smiled instead of saying anything. Minpha didn’t seem to notice.

“Your best friend...the redhead?” Minpha asked, pausing outside of the door to the cat colony. Atsuki also stopped, nodding his head. “I was wondering if you were friends or if he was just the kind of coworker that thinks he’s friends with everyone.” Atsuki laughed.

“Oh, he is that. I, however, also have the fortune, or maybe misfortune, of being his actual friend. We’ve known each other since we were kids.” Minpha made an ‘ah’ sound, trying not to be obvious about glancing behind him towards the cats.

“You can go ahead in. I have to go back to check on the dogs, probably let Shohei know he’s free to go home.”

“Am I allowed? Unsupervised?” Minpha asked, eyebrows flying up in surprise. Atsuki was devastated by how cute it looked on him.

“Usually not,” Atsuki admitted, glancing behind him to the door to reception. It was open, but also highly unlikely that Taku could hear them. “But you’ve been coming here for two months, and I think I trust you not to let all the cats run loose.” He turned back and winked at Minpha before heading down the corridor to the kennel.

Wednesdays, in Atsuki’s opinion, weren’t so bad after all.

-

For a whole week, Atsuki managed to go on with his life without Yutori finding out about the conversation he’d had with Minpha.

As all good things must, however, it comes to an end.

Yutori’s problem was that he didn’t know when to stop. It was also his best asset, and the reason he was even friends with Atsuki to this day. His persistence, in most cases, paid off in the long run, and the only real downside to it was that he never. Stopped. Talking. He could chatter on for hours all on his own, he didn’t even need a conversational partner to participate in a ‘conversation’.

Like right then, when Atsuki was trying to clean the kennels and Yutori was following him around - not even helping - so he could talk at Atsuki about Mr. Hot Goth from his art history lectures on Tuesday and Thursday. Atsuki prided himself on his ability to be the human equivalent of a wall when people tried talking to him when he didn’t want to listen, but it was a lost cause with Yutori. He was the type of person that could talk to an actual wall for hours, and not even for the purpose of proving a point. Atsuki wasn’t sure he didn’t just talk to hear his own voice.

“And today he was doing a portrait of our lecturer in like, Girl Before a Mirror style in some grand artistic metaphor of just how boring the guy is. He did it in like, the span of an hour and then just _trashed_ it. A Microsoft Paint masterpiece done on a track pad in an hour and he just. Closed the window and started playing solitaire.”

“You know,” Atsuki said, standing up straight and looking at Yutori with his best expression of faux interest. Yutori pursed his lips at Atsuki because he knew what was coming next. “That is really fascinating despite it being the third time I have heard it since our shift started, and the five times you told and retold it on the walk here, and the fact that you texted me live as it was happening. How about you go tell this stupendous tale to fresh ears? Perhaps Taku, or Yuui, or even Minpha? I’m sure they could appreciate it just as much as I could _for the tenth time_.”

“Who’s Minpha?”

Atsuki had made a mistake.

“Uh.” Lying didn’t come naturally to Atsuki. He could lie if he needed to, but only when he went into a situation prepared to do so beforehand. This was not one of those situations. Most of those situations didn’t involve his best friend, who could see right through any fib Atsuki could even consider making. “One of the cats.”

“And by one of the cats you mean, the cute pink haired boy who visits the cats?” Yutori’s voice got louder with every word, and he was already talking too loudly. “The one I kept telling you to talk to, but you wouldn’t even ask him for his name? But now you know his name. You talked to him!” The dogs started barking, but it did not, unfortunately, dampen Yutori enough to stop his barrage of questions. “When! Why wasn’t I there! What did you talk about! Do not tell me you _only_ asked for his name!”

“Please shut up,” Atsuki shouted over the barking of the dogs before attempting to calm them down. Yutori looked somewhere between cross and excited. Atsuki thought he might prefer if Yutori settled on anger, because at least that would mean he would ignore Atsuki for the rest of the shift.

“Fine, I’ll leave you to it. But for your information, _Minpha_ isn’t here yet.”

Yutori was right, and he continued to be right for the next half hour. Atsuki began to wonder if perhaps Minpha had decided he didn’t want to show up anymore because it was even weirder now to have Atsuki staring at him when he knew his name and reason for visiting.

It seems to be becoming a habit that Minpha comes in right when Atsuki has given up hope that he will (he wouldn’t spend any time analyzing the fact that he was hoping Minpha will come in, and he certainly wouldn’t mention it to Yutori). Fifteen minutes later than he would usually show up, when Atsuki was sitting behind the reception desk for lack of anything to do and definitely not because he is waiting for someone, Minpha came in and _smiled_ when he saw Atsuki.

Atsuki could feel Yutori’s eyes on him when Minpha approached the desk and wordlessly slid a to-go cup of coffee across the desk to him. Atsuki resolutely looked at the cup.

“Espresso macchiato?” Atsuki asked in a voice he hoped was quiet enough that Yutori couldn’t hear it. He looked up at Minpha to see him nod and then his smile grew so wide his teeth were showing. Atsuki’s heart was beating out of rhythm and his palms felt clammy. “Thank you.”

Minpha made his way toward the door that lets out into the cat corridor. Yutori spent only a moment narrowing his eyes at Atsuki as a way of saying, ‘ _You_ will _explain yourself_ ,’ before following Minpha to let him into whichever cat room he’d chosen to visit today.

In record time, Yutori was back in the reception room with a confused Taku in tow. Atsuki was grabbed by the wrist and unceremoniously pulled out from behind the desk, with Taku shoved there in his place while Yutori dragged him around the corner into the storage room. He closed the door before turning on the light and cursed for a few moments as he fumbled for the switch. When the light was successfully on, Yutori pinned Atsuki with a very unintimidating glare.

“I’ve been telling you to talk to him for _months_ , and when you finally do you don’t even do it in front of me?” Yutori hissed, and it’s unusually quiet, which is indicative of just how hurt Yutori actually was. “When did you even have time to talk to him without me seeing? Did you go out of your way to make sure I wasn’t there?”

“It was an accident,” Atsuki said, and he didn’t know why he sounded so apologetic; he didn’t do anything wrong, and it’s not a big deal that he’d talk to Minpha. Or that Minpha had remembered his cafe order from a week prior, and thought of Atsuki on his way to the shelter. “I ran into him at the cafe a week ago-”

“A week ago!” Yutori sounded even more indignant, his voice going higher than ever. “You’ve known his name for an entire week and you didn’t tell me!”

“Why does it even matter?” Atsuki said, trying to distract Yutori from his (unnecessary) hurt feelings.

“He brought you a coffee and you’re asking me why it matters?” Yutori asked. His voice said he thought it was obvious, and it was, because Atsuki knew, but he could be just as stubborn as Yutori sometimes, especially when it came to denying obvious things. “Straight boys don’t bring coffee for other boys to their workplace. Don’t even try to say that doesn’t mean anything, Atsuki. An _uninterested_ not-straight boy wouldn’t bring you coffee. He probably wouldn’t have even remembered your order.”

“Maybe he just wants to be my friend,” Atsuki supplied, crossing his arms. Yutori groaned. “He doesn’t even know if I like boys, why would he hit on me.”

“Maybe buying you coffee was a test,” Yutori said quickly before Atsuki could think of a more sound argument to prove Minpha wasn’t interested. “If you reacted badly, he would know you’re not into guys. But you didn’t, and now he knows it’s safe to make a move.”

“You’re reading too much into this,” Atsuki said, but his arms dropped and his shoulders sagged because Yutori was making sense, and Atsuki was getting his hopes up, which was the last thing he wanted. “I don’t even like him, it doesn’t matter.”

-

Atsuki kept telling himself that for the next two weeks that Minpha showed up and didn’t do anything more than bring him coffee. He didn’t try to talk to Atsuki, didn’t do more than wave hello and slide a coffee across the reception desk to him. He didn’t even hand it over so their hands would accidentally touch or something. 

What Atsuki had originally chalked up to being a friendly gesture appeared to be just that, and he was cursing himself for letting Yutori talk him into hoping it was something more than that. Every time Minpha came in, Atsuki made a point of sipping his espresso macchiato while glaring at Yutori, who would roll his eyes. He was denying that he was wrong as stubbornly as Atsuki had denied that he might be right.

Unexpectedly, as nearly every interaction between them so far, Minpha initiated conversation one Monday morning after arriving earlier than usual. It was exactly 9:42 AM when Atsuki came back into reception after letting the dogs out for the morning to see Minpha standing by the front desk, looking a combination of lost, nervous, and unhappy. His pink eyebrows were furrowed and lips pouting; it was both adorable and something Atsuki never wanted to see on his face again.

“You’re here early,” Atsuki said amicably, announcing his presence to avoid startling an already upset Minpha. He approached and leaned against the counter next to Minpha instead of going behind it. He realized only after it was too late to take it back that it might be too forward. “How may I help you? Has Yutori not unlocked the cat rooms yet?” Minpha shook his head, perturbed expression remaining, and Atsuki’s own smile faltered.

“I can’t stay long,” Minpha began, “It wouldn’t be fair to the cats to run in and run back out. I just wanted to come by before I left for the airport…” Minpha trailed off, sounding unsure.

“Airport?” Atsuki prompted, heart throbbing uncomfortably in his chest.

“Yeah, my family does like this annual two week vacation trip and being an adult doesn’t exempt me from it because I still live with them,” Minpha rambled, glancing at his hands as he fidgeted with them. Atsuki just avoided audibly sighing in relief. “I’m kind of bummed about it because we’re going somewhere that only has outside activities and a distinct lack of cute cats.”

“I’m sure you’ll find an adorable stray or ten around.” Atsuki’s smile returned, hoping he could at least provoke droll amusement from Minpha before he was absent for two weeks. A sad face being the last memory of him for even a day seemed dismal.

“But they won’t be tended by a cute punk,” Minpha groused, glancing up at Atsuki and making his insides fill with butterflies, “And I’ve grown attached to the ones here. It’ll be like not seeing or hearing from my own children for two weeks.”

Atsuki stared idly for a moment, mouth half open to speak as he took a few seconds too long to process all of Minpha’s words, brain tripping over _cute punk_ a few times.

“That- uh- They- I-,” Atsuki tried to will himself to speak, but his brain hadn’t provided words for his mouth. The corner of Minpha’s lips twitched upwards, so at least one good thing was coming out of his incompetence, he supposed. Eventually, his mouth and brain agreed to ask, “Do you have, like, snapchat or something?”

For a moment, Minpha looked shocked and he wanted to shove the words back into his mouth, but then he smiled brilliantly and Atsuki thought that maybe he could pat himself on the back for being so forward later.

“You’ll send me pictures? Of the cats?” Minpha asked excitedly, pulling his phone out and unlocking it.

“Absolutely,” Atsuki said, doing the same and smiling once again.

Atsuki doesn’t realize until after Minpha has thanked him and bid him goodbye that there was another person in the room. Something he would have realized if he had actually gone behind the reception desk to begin with. He found out as soon as the front door closed and Yutori jumped up, pointing a finger so close to his face Atsuki thought it was a miracle he didn’t lose an eye.

“HE WAS TOTALLY HITTING ON YOU!” Yutori shouted and Atsuki cringed, both at the abuse to his ears and knowing from experience that Yutori’s voice has no problem carrying throughout the shelter and being heard out front. He just hoped Minpha made it back to the car waiting out front fast enough to avoid hearing him.

“Keep it down, we are the only ones here.”

“I feel like I should take offense to that,” Taku said, coming out of the storage room carrying two buckets of litter. “Yutori is right, though, however earsplitting he may be.”

“SEE! YOU CAN’T PRETEND L-” Yutori began to shout again, but Atsuki nearly vaulted the counter to slap a hand over his mouth.

“Shut. Up. I don’t want to have this conversation when you speak at a normal volume - which you are actually incapable of, I’m sure of it - let alone when you are shouting at me.” Yutori licked his palm, but Atsuki kept his hand firm in place because he was used to worse from his best friend. “Let it go. He just wanted some way to see the cats. I will not hear anything you have to say about it because you always get my hopes up and then I get let down.”

“But you admit there are hopes,” Taku supplied as he made his way out of the room.

“Why must you betray me!” Atsuki yelled after him, not nearly close to the volume Yutori was capable of. He glances between Yutori and the way Taku had just exited briefly before deciding to bolt for the kennels and leaving Yutori stuck at reception so he didn’t have to listen to whatever he wanted to say.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the longer i spent proof reading this the more i realized how heavily i project onto yutori

Atsuki sincerely meant to only send Minpha snaps of the cats like he had asked, but he failed step one only a day later.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Yutori had his art history lectures in the mornings where Atsuki had a clear schedule until the afternoon. Yutori, incapable of quiet, always woke him up unintentionally, and instead of waiting for him to leave, Atsuki used his sudden free time to visit his mother for brunch.

Every time he arrived, his dogs would enthusiastically greet him and he didn’t fail to take a million pictures and videos of them to send to everyone on snapchat. Most of them were blurry and he didn’t bother to save them, but he did get a good video of Maron licking his face in greeting.

He didn’t realize his mistake until he sent a picture of both dogs begging for food and checked his feed afterwards, seeing messages from Minpha. _Shit._

The first one was a very zoomed in and grainy picture of a cat sitting in someone’s window. _Cute,_ is all it said. The second was a picture of a vibrantly colored ice cream cone, and Atsuki recognized Minpha’s surprisingly large and masculine hand holding it. _Are they your dogs?_

Atsuki spent ten whole minutes deliberating how he should reply, _if_ he should reply. In the end, he settled for sending a picture of both of them curled together on his lap. _Yes,_ the reply read, _Their names are Maron and Ruby_.

-

Somehow after that slip up, their snaps became less exclusively about the shelter cats and more about any animal either of them happened to see. Minpha quickly rose through the ranks of Atsuki’s snapchat best friends and was second only to Yutori within three days. Three days was a significant point in their snap exchange for one other reason, though.

When Atsuki got out of his painting class late Friday morning, there was a snap from Minpha. This wasn’t unusual, and Atsuki viewed it without a second thought. He stopped dead in his walk and nearly dropped his phone when he saw that the picture was of Minpha, looking half asleep with his hair a mess and surrounded by white bedding. _good morning_ , The lighting was just right to illuminate the entire picture in a heavenly glow.

It couldn’t have been more than three seconds long, but Atsuki gaped at his phone for what felt like an eternity before Yutori was waving a hand in front of his face.

“Earth to Atsuki. Come in Atsuki. If you’d like to wash the paint off of your face before volunteering, you need to get your ass in gear. I will leave you,” Yutori said to a still slightly dumbfounded Atsuki. “What the fuck are you even looking at?”

Yutori’s hand reaching for Atsuki’s phone finally snapped the latter completely out of his daze. “Nothing,” he said, much too quickly to avoid suspicion, pocketing his phone in record time. Yutori narrowed his eyes. Atsuki really wished he were a better liar.

“You had snapchat open,” Yutori said as Atsuki began walking again, picking up a brisk pace. Yutori had no problems keeping up despite his shorter legs. Atsuki cursed the ridiculous amount of energy he contained that allowed him to walk so quickly without trouble. “What did Minpha send you? Nudes? You looked pretty fucking enchanted there, dude.”

“What?! No! What even makes you think it was Minpha?”

“I don’t understand why you insist on denying that you have the mega hots for him. I’m your best friend. Shit, I don’t even need to be to see it. You’re kind of incredibly obvious and really terrible at lying, even to yourself.”

Atsuki avoided eye contact but conceded the point. “Why is your first assumption that he would send me nudes?”

“He seems like the type to send unsolicited dick pics,” Yutori said casually and Atsuki actually turned to furrow his brows in disbelief at him. “What? It’s always the quiet ones.”

“Well, he didn’t send me anything like that,”Atsuki said slowly, still giving Yutori an incredulous look, “He sent me a selfie.”

“You stopped in the middle of a crowded sidewalk because of a selfie.” Atsuki groaned because it sounded so much more ridiculous when Yutori put it that way.

“He’s only sent me pictures of stray animals or random scenery or like. His hands and shoes up til now. And you didn’t see the picture. He looks like-”

“If you say ‘an angel’ I’m never going to stop laughing at you.”

“He looks _really cute_ and sleepy and the light is all glowy and-”

“You are so gross, oh my god,” Yutori was laughing obnoxiously and did a very bad job of containing himself when Atsuki glared. “So are you gonna send him a selfie back?”

“I have paint on my face,” Atsuki deadpanned.

“Minpha was in bed and just woke him up, you owe him this,” Yutori said, putting a hand on Atsuki’s shoulder with mock graveness.

“I hate you,” Atsuki said, but he was pulling out his phone to reply to Minpha while Yutori cackled at him anyway. He snapped a mostly clear picture of his face, which was a feat between walking and trying to keep Yutori out of the picture.

_morning? its almost noon, sleepyhead_

Atsuki fiddled with his lip piercing after sending it, and Yutori rolled his eyes and for once remained quiet, much to Atsuki’s relief. It wasn’t until three excruciating minutes later that Minpha replied. Although more prepared this time, Atsuki’s heart still stuttered at the selfie of a sleepy Minpha, toothbrush in mouth with a pink nose, whiskers and cat ears drawn on. _i’m on vacation ur lucky im awake before 4pm_

“WOW,” Yutori yelled, right in Atsuki’s ear because he was peeking over Atsuki’s shoulder at his phone. “This is like, boyfriend level snaps.”

“You send me snaps like this all the time,” Atsuki muttered while side-eyeing Yutori with malice for shouting in his ear. It wasn’t the first time and it would hardly be the last.

“Yeah, but we’ve been best friends since we were like, babies, basically,” Yutori countered, “You’ve known this guy for three months and had like two whole conversations with him - one of which I know contained flirting, so I will assume the first did as well. You don’t send snaps like this to that guy from the shelter unless you think he’s cute.”

“You assume a lot for someone that’s never been in this situation,” Atsuki snorted and decided to tune out whatever else Yutori had to say in favor of replying to Minpha. He managed to hold his camera steady long enough to turn on the filters, and flicked quickly through them for the puppy one. He furrowed his brows and pouted for maximum puppy face effect and sent the picture after slapping a sticker over Yutori in the background with the caption _but who will send me cute cat pics if ur sleeping all day?_

“Sending sappy lovesick snaps _and_ covering me? Disgusting,” Yutori huffed, walking ahead of Atsuki as they reached their apartment block.

-

Atsuki had been assuming that upon Minpha’s return, their snap exchange would stop. Afterall, it had only started because Minpha had been disappointed about being unable to see the shelter cats for two weeks - and the cute punk that tends to them, Yutori never failed to remind him in an incredibly obnoxious impression of Minpha’s voice. It was nowhere near accurate, simply because Yutori couldn’t get his voice to be quiet enough.

The assumption, however, proved itself to be wrong the morning that Minpha returned. Atsuki was playing a game on his phone behind the reception desk because it was ten in the morning on a Monday and almost no one came in that early. Minpha did, but Atsuki also assumed he wouldn’t be coming it that day because of jetlag, or something.

Suddenly, a snapchat notification blocked a portion of the screen and Atsuki almost screamed as he missed several beats on his rhythm game. All the lividity in him died when he saw who the snap was from.

The picture was of a to-go coffee cup in Minpha’s hand, the caption reading _airport traffic is the devil_ with a giant skull emoji taking up half of the image. Quickly, but not without checking to make sure Yutori wasn’t around first, Atsuki crossed from reception to the kittens’ room. He crouched down right outside of their holding pin and zoomed in on the white and orange tabby named Mittens that was Minpha’s favorite. _ur child misses u_

_i’m omw_

Atsuki nearly dropped his phone when he recognized the blurry scenery snapped through a taxi window. It was a twenty minutes’ drive from the shelter, a mostly residential area. Was Minpha joking? Surely he must be on his way home instead. Regardless, he took another picture of Mittens where she’d settled down with Amethyst for a nap. _they await you patiently_

Atsuki was completely dumbfounded when, in roughly twenty minutes time, Minpha came walking through the front door. His hair was slightly mussed at the back of his head and he looked beyond sleepy, but he still smiled when he saw Atsuki waiting behind the reception desk.

“Aren’t you tired? You were just on a plane for like, how many hours?”

“Mmm, incredibly.” Minpha said, but he didn’t bother to answer the second question. Instead of heading straight for the cats like Atsuki expected him to, Minpha approached the desk and leaned on it with his chin in his hands. He was still smiling and it looked incredibly fond; Atsuki had to look away, shuffling papers to make it less obvious he was avoiding eye contact. His face felt hot and he could only hope it didn’t look it. “I’d have gotten you coffee, too, but it would have been cold by the time I got here.”

“Here to visit your boyfriend?” Atsuki nearly dropped all the papers at the sound of the question from the doorway. He didn’t have to look to know it was Yutori, but he did anyway just to level him with the most venomous glare he could muster.

His attention was snapped away when he heard Minpha’s nervous laughter.

“Am I that obvious?” When he asks the question, his voice is no quieter than usual, but it trembles. Minpha is hiding his face a bit, but what parts are peaking through his fingers look as red as Atsuki feels. Yutori looks annoyingly smug from his place leaning against the doorway.

“Pathetically. But so is Atsuki. I’m amazed you guys aren’t boyfriends yet, let alone haven’t gone on a date. How long has it been?” Yutori paused, appearing to count on his fingers, before waving his hands in dismissal. “Whatever, it’s been way too long is my point. Atsuki’s a fucking _weenie_ -”

“I resent that-”

“-who won’t accept the fact that you like him as much as he likes you when I say it. But you’ve just admitted it out loud with your own mouth so-”

“He didn’t admit to _anything_ ,” Atsuki cut in, so loudly that Yutori actually stops talking for a moment. “So he came in to see me - whatever. You used to do that all the time when we couldn’t work the same hours because of schedule conflicts. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Atsuki was so livid he felt it burn in his muscles, and his knees felt weak despite the fact that he was sitting down. Yutori was his best friend and did a lot of good things for him, but sometimes he pushed too far on the wrong things and Atsuki was tired. His feelings were being spelled out in big bold letters in front of Minpha and it was just too much.

Of course Yutori didn’t see it, though. He never knew when to shut up.

“It never fails to amaze me how someone so ostentatious is the king of needless self-doubt,” Yutori huffed. Atsuki clenched his fist. Minpha’s eyes flitted between the two. “Like, first of all we both know I had a crush on you in middle school which was when I came to see you here all the time even though I didn’t actually have the time to.” Atsuki rolled his eyes.

“I digress; that’s not the point and we already had that conversation years ago. The point is that you always deny the blatantly obvious and make things harder for yourself than they need to be. If Minpha didn’t like you, he would have had a problem with me calling you his boyfriend. If Minpha didn’t like you, he wouldn’t bring you coffee every time he came in. If Minpha didn’t like you, he would have never added you on snapchat, let alone sent you selfies. You don’t send the volunteer from the shelter snapchat selfies if you don’t wann s-”

“I think to avoid violent escalation of this situation,” Minpha cut in, eyes focused on Atsuki’s balled fists, “I should just say that as embarrassing as being read like this with two other people as witnesses is, what he’s saying is all relatively true.”

The angry tapping of Atsuki’s foot stopped immediately and his eyes snapped to Minpha, eyebrows furrowed. For a tense moment, no one said anything.

“I can’t believe he notices when I’m in the room, but neither of you do. Talk about fake friends,” Taku cut in, startling Yutori and Atsuki out of their brewing argument. As always, Yutori recovered first and completely steamrolled right over Taku.

“So Minpha’s admitted with his own mouth that he likes you, and he’s not so thickheaded as to pretend you don’t like him when you’ve been dropping hints for the last forever and I just spelled it out for him. So can you stop being babies worried about getting caught staring at each other?”

Atsuki glanced up at Minpha, and actually managed to maintain eye contact when he saw Minpha was already looking at him. Both of them were vaguely aware of Taku leaving the room, but neither of them managed to come up with anything to say in the time it took.

“This is the part where you make date plans, or something. How about a movie date? Atsuki loves movies. And it’s gross and cliche, like the two of you. Beauty and the Beast. Truly disgusting.”

“You don’t know enough about me to label me the beauty, though,” Minpha laughed.

“No, and Atsuki’s like a horrible combination of both of those things. Do you know how long this guy spends doing his makeup? Too long.”

“Can we stop this conversation before you reveal more of my embarrassing secrets?” Atsuki butted in.

“ _Fine_ ,” Yutori sniffs haughtily, “But if you don’t tell me all about the date you’ve planned later, I’m going to lock you out of our apartment until you have one.”

-

“I can’t believe you agreed to see a fucking horror movie with him.”

“I knooooooow,” Atsuki groaned, barely managing to reign in the urge to rub a hand down his face. He had just finished doing his makeup and didn’t need to ruin it when he had to leave in less than ten minutes.

“You’re going to spend like, seventy-two percent of it covering your eyes and screaming at every jumpscare. If that’s not a dealbreaker, I don’t know what is.” Yutori, the bastard, was lounged on the couch and playing on his phone as if Atsuki’s imminent doom didn’t affect him in the slightest.

“I don’t _scream_. And it’s not like I’ll be the only one in the theatre not looking at the screen. Maybe he’ll be more scared than me. We can cower together and it’ll be fine.”

“You’re doing that thing where you talk a million miles a minute because you know this is about to be a disaster.”

“Thanks for the pep talk. I’m two seconds from locking myself in my room and standing him up, honestly.” Suddenly, a couch cushion hit Atsuki in the face. He blinked and looked back at Yutori, who was sitting up with his phone tossed on the coffee table.

“You will do no such thing,” He half-shouted, although Atsuki has no doubt Yutori thought he was speaking at an appropriate volume. “I have had to watch you be a weiner for the last nearly _four months_ , you’re not going to stand poor Minpha up on your first date just because you’re going to make an idiot of yourself.”

“That’s not helping,” Atsuki shouted back, wringing the hem of his shirt.

“Too bad! You have to go now! Don’t make you walk you to the theatre! I am not your mother and this is not your first day of kindergarten!”

“You would be the worst mother ever! You can’t remember to feed yourself, let alone a child!” Atsuki yelled as he made his way out of the door. He closed the door just in time to keep another couch cushion from flying out into the hallway.

The walk to the movie theatre was a short one. It took Atsuki five minutes on a normal day, but his nerves sped up his steps and he made it in three and a half. He was both grateful and regretful that he lived so nearby. At least he wouldn’t have to hail a taxi or spend a twenty minute walk lamenting his entire life if he made a complete fool of himself.

His dreadful thoughts were cut off when Minpha came in, a big smile spreading on his face and waving as soon as he spotted Atsuki.

“Hello! Am I late?” Minpha asked as he approached Atsuki. He was a bit hard to hear over the din of the theatre, bustling because everyone was here to see the new horror movie. Great, even more people to see him look like a total idiot.

“Ah, no, I’m just early,” Atsuki laughed awkwardly, speaking quietly for an excuse to lean close to Minpha. “I live close by.”

Atsuki’s anxiety disappeared for the five minutes they stood in line conversing quietly, and all the way into theatre three. It was already crowded, but they managed to find seats together on the far left near the center. Atsuki thought maybe it would turn out fine, until the ads stopped and the movie actually began.

The opening credits weren’t bad; they never are. It was a standard ghost story introduction, a family moving into a new place with their dog, settling in, being domestic, building character for the viewers to sympathize with.

He could sense the first jumpscare approaching, and he slouched down in his seat in hopes Minpha wouldn’t notice him trying to avoid looking at the screen. Glancing to his right, he saw that Minpha actually seemed to be pretty engrossed with the unfolding story.

Just as Atsuki looked back at the screen, a jumpscare popped out. He managed to avoid screaming, but a yelp that sounded pathetically like a distressed pup still left his mouth. He covered his face with his hands before he could see if Minpha turned to look at him or not. He didn’t dare uncover his eyes until he heard the soundtrack mellow out, and his focus stayed resolutely on the screen.

He could tell Minpha was glancing at him, saw his pink head turn every so often in his peripheral vision. Minpha was chewing his bottom lip, almost like he was thinking about something. Atsuki knew what when, a moment later, he felt Minpha’s hand cover his and try to pry his death grip off of the armrest.

Not for the first time, Atsuki marveled at how surprisingly large and masculine Minpha’s hands were. They were almost as big as Atsuki’s despite their notable height difference. He lets Minpha remove his hand from the armrest, pull it into his own lap and thread their fingers together. It was comforting, and Atsuki relaxed long enough to make the mistake of looking at the screen again. His gaze immediately dropped back to their clasped hands, hoping beyond hope Minpha couldn’t feel his racing pulse where there wrists were touching.

Most of the movie went much the same, save for a few times when jumpscares got the best of him and he definitely _didn’t_ yelp, regardless of what anyone said. Atsuki spent more time observing Minpha than the screen. By some miracle, Minpha’s face remained somewhere between impassive and immersed through the entire film, not flinching once. Atsuki began questioning if he even blinked.

“I am….so sorry about that,” Atsuki said after staring at the end credits rolling for two minutes while other people and couples were taking their leave. “I don’t know what possessed me to suggest a horror movie. I don’t hate them, but I’m kind of jumpy. Really jumpy. A total weiner, as Yutori always puts it.”

“It’s nothing to apologize for,” Minpha said, voice as soft as ever, and a bit hard to catch over the music playing after not having heard him speak for over an hour.

“I probably made it hard to focus on the film, that was really lame-”

“I said it’s fine,” Minpha cut him off. “It was cute.”

“Cute?”

“Absolutely adorable. Yutori tells me you wax poetic about me pouting, but I don’t think it compares to how endearing your yelps sound. There’s something especially charming about a kid who looks like he shoves people in lockers for fun cowering over a ghost story.” Atsuki was dumbfounded, watching Minpha get up and walk through the aisle to the exit. He only snapped out of his stupor and chased after him when he stopped and turned back to Atsuki at the door.

“For the record, I never have and never would shove someone in a locker. Bullying is totally uncool.” Atsuki assured, trying to regain some of his punk cred after looking like a complete fool for the last near two hours.

“I said looks like he shoves people in lockers, I would never think you’ve actually done such a thing. Looks can be deceiving,” Minpha said, looking Atsuki in the eye. The small smile on his face is mysterious, and Atsuki wondered if Minpha meant something more that he was actually saying with his words. He shoved it to the back of his mind for now, something to overthink another time.

All too soon, they were standing outside of the theatre again, and Atsuki regretted not holding Minpha’s hand on the way out.

“I’m pretty sure we go in opposite directions, and I’m catching a ride back home so I guess this is where we part ways,” Minpha pouted, bouncing from his heels to his toes as if he were nervous.

“I had fun cowering and holding your hand for two hours. Sorry about the clamminess, though.”

“I didn’t mind. It was cute, and fun, and the movie was good even if you only collectively saw about two minutes of it.”

“Aw come on, it was at least three minutes.”

“Two and a half, maybe,” Minpha smiled and settled on his heels and chewing his lips. He glanced over his shoulder, and Atsuki noticed a car parked across the street, probably waiting for Minpha. He grasped for something to say before Minpha left, but he beat Atsuki to it. “Tell me when you get home safe?”

“You too, it’ll take you longer than me.” No sooner than the words were out of his mouth, Minpha was hopping back up on his tiptoes to brace a hand on Atsuki’s shoulder and kiss him on the mouth. It was quick and soft, over almost too fast for Atsuki to register that it had happened.

“Bye,” Minpha said and scuttled across the street before Atsuki could gather the wits to return the farewell. He waved at the car Minpha had gotten into as it drove away instead.

Atsuki trekked home in a daze, once again glad for the very short walk. He came out of it a bit once he got into his building, standing in front of his own door for a few moments to shake it off completely. He wouldn’t be able to handle Yutori’s bombardment of questions otherwise.

Just before he could unlock the door, he felt his phone going off in his pocket. _I should text Minpha now_ , he remembered, _It’d be a miracle if I found time with Yutori hounding me_.

The notification, unexpectedly, was from Minpha, and even more surprisingly, Yutori hadn’t blown his phone up over the course of the date. It was just a message sent via snapchat, no image attached.

_i really had fun and i really thought u were cute and i definitely want to go on another date w/ u, but i might not be able to for a while because my dad didn’t appreciate me kissing u in the middle of a main road but i really relaly like u pls don’t get the wrong impression if i don’t respond to u or see u for a while_

“Oh,” Atsuki said aloud. That wasn’t how he wanted the night to end, and definitely didn’t make Yutori’s imminent barrage of questions anymore appealing. He had to respond though.

_don’t worry about it, i understand, it’s not your fault!! i’m home safe, tho, please still let me know when you are if you can._

He pocketed his phone, put on his best ‘don’t talk to me face’ and steeled himself before finally entering his apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dun dun dun. leaving things ambiguously open at the end because i honestly have a lot more planned in this au for these two, but still ending it here bc i don't know if i'll ever actually write it and it doesn't fit in this timeline anyway LOL thanks to ali for holding my hand through finishing this!!


End file.
